President’s Perspective

In March, we had the pleasure of welcoming Wayne Roberts, CEO of the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas, to give the Texas Medical Center community a bit more of an understanding of his institute’s priorities and goals.

This program has provided the support and infrastructure for important cancer prevention programs, funds for basic research and translating fundamental discoveries into commercialized products for the improvement of human health. You can read more about their visit in this issue of Pulse.

Opportunities like those offered by CPRIT, the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and the Texas Enterprise Fund are extremely important as we seek to make Houston a leading destination for life science and innovation. This is also an area of interest to our campus’ health policy community, as state legislators appropriate these funds. These programs are examples of how taxpayers can invest in the future of Texas, creating jobs and providing the collaborative environment and ecosystem for discoveries that will cure cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and other devastating diseases. It is essential that programs like these continue.

CPRIT’s mission is particularly powerful, in no small part, because Texas voters believed in it enough to make it happen, and that is what we see every day within the Texas Medical Center. Passion and dedication help drive new discoveries. It is exciting to see what can emerge when the right people and resources come together to further research.